Piano-violin bow.



e. K. HEN NIGQ PIANO VIOLIN 80W.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT- !5. I915.

Patented Fab.19,1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET I.

IS I

G. K. HENNIG.

PIANO V|0L!N BOW. Armcmon FILED SEPT-15. I915.

Patented Feb. 19,1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

512.2. y iii-=5: :Ew' I G. KJHENNIG; PIANO VIOLIN BOW.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT- 15- i915.

G. K. HENNIG.

PIANO VIOLIN BOW APPLICATION mm SEPT- 15. 1915.

1,256,900. Patented Feb. 19, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GUSTAV KARL HENNIG, 0F BGHLITZ-EHRENBERG, NEAR LEIPZIG, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TOTHE FIRM OF LUDWIG HUPFELD AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, OF BfiHLITZ-EHREN- BERG, GERMANY.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I. GUSTAV KARL HENNIG, a subject of the King of Saxony, residing at 1 Bielastrasse, Bohlitz-Ehrenberg, near Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Piano-Violin Bows; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention.

This invention relates to mechanically operated stringed instruments whose strings are set into operation from a bow, and has for its object to prevent the continuous bow from deviating from its proper path, and also the provision of means to tilt the bow with respect to the instrument for playing any one string or any pair of adjacent strings.

Endless horsehair bows have heretofore been used. Bowing bands of other material have also been used, being usually guided over flanged rollers.

I have found flanged rollers to be impracticable for endless band bows of horsehair, as it is impossible to always keep the band in the middle of the flanged roller, and the flanges then contact with the side hairs of the band and rapidly wear them out, or cause the fiat band to roll or twistup into a string, and thus become useless for vibrating the strings. To obviate this I use rollers without flanges, and keep the band on the rollers by automatically operating means controlled from the horsehair band itself.

The invention has also for its object the provision of means for moving particular strings into and out of playing position.

Referring to the drawings, in which like parts are similarly designated- F ignre 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of a. continuous bow and a violin played thereby, showing my invention applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a modification of the mechanism shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1, with means for tilting the bow to play on any one of'a number of strings.

Fig. 5 is a side view of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a modification of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 shows, on a larger scale, the arrangement of levers employed in Fig. 6, for tilting the bow.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 1

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 19, 1918.

Application filed September 15, 1915. Serial No. 50,825.

and 2, m is the violin, whose how 5 is an endless band of horsehair or equivalent material, carried by two pulleys a and a of equal size. These pulleys are mounted in a frame It capable of being tilted about an axis '17.. The shaft 2 of pulley a. is prolonged, and is provided with a driving pulley 3, driven by a cord 4; passing over a pulley n mounted at the tail of the violin. The pulley n is connected to a pulley a driven by a cord 11.

Adjacent one of the two parallel portions of the how 6, and here shown as adjacent the lower portion, 1 provide two pivoted feelers c and 0. Each feeler consists of a twoarmed lever, one end of which is proximate the bow when in its middle and proper position, and the other end of which operates as a valve to control the admission of air to an air pipe (Z or (2. There are two of such feelers, one on each side of the bow, and two air pipes at and (Z leading to a pneumatic chest 7, in which there are two like valves 6, one for each pipe 0?, cl respectively connected to the bellows h and h. The valveG controls the admission of air to a bellows h, which bellows operates a lever i pivoted at 7 on the frame 70.

The shaft 1 of the bow pulley a is mounted in slots is in the frame 7; and projects into the path of the levers 2', 2". Should the bow run in an inclined position, that is, deviate from its normal path toward the feeler 0, this feeler will be swung on its pivot, so that its tail will open pipe (Z to admit air thereto. This air passes under the diaphragm e of the valve 6, raises this valve, closes port 6 to the outside atmosphere, and opens port 6 to the suction chamber f, thereby connecting the bellows it through its pipe 9 with the suction chamber f and causing this bellows to collapse.

The collapsing of the bellows it will draw the lever 1 down, swin it on its pivot 7, and thereby move the shaft 1 to the left, in Fig. 1, thereby causing the axis of the wheel a to be slightly inclined with respect to the wheel a, so that the how will be returned to its normal position. The feeler c on the opposite side of the bow is operated in the same manner by like mechanism.

It will be noted that the endless bow is driven from the wheel of, whose axis is a continuation of the longitudinal axis of the violin we, thus permitting the frame In and how 6 to rock about this axis, so that any one of the strings of the violin, or any two adjacent strings, may be played.

In the modification shown in Fig. 3 the bow is not intended to be rocked so as to contact with any one of the strin s of the violin, it being simply raised and lowered by the following mechanism:

The endless bow Z) is carried over two rollers, a, a, the roller (4 being j ournaled in slots 7r of the frame 70, and having motion in said slots in the same manner as described with respect to the roller (1 Fig. 1. The roller a, however, is journaled in the end of lever 713 pivoted to the frame at 8 and urged into normal position by a spring 9 connected to lever is and to the frame 70. The lever 70" is moved by means of a double bellows o. 0 connected to the lever by the link 21. These bellows are controlled from the note sheet as described in connection with Figs. 1, a and 5. The feelers 0, 0, are mounted on the lever 70 and control the admission of air through pipe (Z to valve 6, in the same manner as described with respect to Fig. 1. The lever for effecting the inclination of the axis of the roller a is, however, in this instance different from the lever 2 Fig. 1, in that it is pivoted at T to the frame Zr at a point between its ends, so that the short arm of this lever above the point- T will bear against projecting ends of the spindle 1 of roller a, the other arm of this lever being acted upon by the pneumatic 71 This mechanism is of course duplicated for the other side of the bow in the same manner as in Fig. 2. Of course, the endless bow Z) may be arranged to travel in a fixed path. in which case the mechanism for tilt ing the roller (1 about the point 8 will be omitted. but the instrument or string will then have to be moved to and from the bow. or the bow moved to and from the string by moving the frame 70.

Figs. a to 7 show two forms of mechanism for guiding the bow, and for tipping it. so as to contact with any string or pair of adjacent strings of the instrument. In this structur I provide a pair of opposite standards 5, in which is pivoted a frame 70 on journals u. In the frame 7': are mounted two rollers a, a, for the how 7), the one a having its axis extended and carrying av rope-wheel a? actuated by a rope 4 driven by a rope-pulley n on one of the pivots a,

' and adjacent a rope pulley n, which in turn is rotated by a driving rope 11, from any suitable motor. The pivot points 22 are in an axis perpendicular to the plane of the bridge m of the violin m.

The frame 7n, 0 is moved to any one of the seven positions required for playing the violin m by means of a'double bellows, 0, 0, connected to the frame by the link 7), or by seven such bellows, (only one or three of such bellows are shown in Figs. 1 and 4.) each having a different extent of movem t. commensurate with the seven positions of the bow. These double bellows may be connected to the frame by separate links 7), or they all may be connected to a single link.

These bellows are controlled from the note sheet 17 running over a tracker board 18 as shown in Fig. 1, which is provided with suitable control perforations, said control being also by means of connections 1920 with valves similar to those shown in Figs. 1 and 3, arranged in a valve chest 21 Fig. 1. The bellows 0 is used to move the frame and bow into the desired position, while the bellows 0 returns the bow and frame to normal position.

Instead of all the bellows being connected to the frame on one side of the pivot point n they may be distributed on both sides.

The positioning of the bow may also be efiectcd manually, by means of a handle, shown at 22 Figs. 1 and 4.

This lever mec ianism may be operated indepeiulently of the bellows shown at 0, 0, or it may be combined with it, as shown at Figs. 1 and l, so that the bow may be positioned automatically, as well as by hand.

Instead of operating or controlling the bellows from the note sheet, this may be done by hand in the following manner, reference being had to the structure shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. In the conduit 20 is arranged a valve '23, operated by a lever 52% opening the conduit 20 in the same manner as a hole in the note sheet. The number of positions into which the bow must be moved is dependent upon the number of strings of he instrument, and said how mechanism will necessarily be constructed accordingly.

In the modification shown in 6 and '7, the frame 70 is provided at each end with supports 12, pivoted thereto, which sup- )orts are connected together at their upper ends by means of a curved connecting rod r having an extension 13 carrying a guide roller 1 A spring r connected at one end to one of the supports 12, and at the other to the connecting rod r holds this pivoted arrangement in normal position. The spindlc 1 of the roller (1 forms a pivot connecting one of the supports 12 with one end of the connecting rod 1" and the spindle 2 of the roller (4 forms a pivot connecting the other support 12 with the element 1*.

The driving pulley 3 on the spindle 2 is actuated by a driving band or chain 4 passing over guide pulleys 14 to the pulley a, which is driven by a wind motor or an electric motor.

The frame l: is supported by a link 9 pivotally connected to one end of a lever 9 whose other end is connected to a stationary element 15.

The lever g rests on a fork 9 preferably arranged directly beneath the link 9. This fork is pivoted in a support 16 and has an arm 9 connected by a link 9' to the frame is. Connected to the frame is by means of one or more links 79 are a number of double bellows 0, 0, such as described in connection with Fig. 4.

When the frame is is tipped by one of these bellows, for example into the position shown in dotted lines, the roller 1" passes over the curved surface 8 thereby causing the elements 12 to be moved at an angle to the inclined frame is, so that the bow I) passing over the rollers a, a, will be bodily moved from one position to another.

The curved surface a is so constructed that when the bow is moved from one string to another the bow will follow the curve of the bridge m, instead of pivoting on the string which has just been played.

In this mechanism, which is automatically controlled from a tracker bar, means are also provided for positioning the bow by hand, or mechanically as well as pneumatically, as shown at 25.

I claim as my invention:

1. A piano violin comprising an endless band bow, and a pair of guide rollers therefor, mechanism for moving one of said rollers so that its axis shall be inclined to the axis of the other roller, and feeler mechanism adjacent the bow and actuated there by when the latter is out of normal position to control the movement of the aforesaid mechanism.

2. A piano violin comprising a frame, a pair of rollers mounted therein and an endless band bow passing over said rollers, one of said rollers being movably mounted in said frame, a lever pivoted to the frame and arranged to move said movable roller, finger mechanism adjacent the bow and adapted to be actuated thereby when the bow is out of normal position, and mechanism controlled by said. finger mechanism to actuate said lever.

3. A piano violin comprising a frame, a pair of rollers mounted in said frame, an endless hand how supported on said rollers, levers arranged to act on one of said rollers to incline its axis with respect to the axis of the other roller when the bow is out of normal position, and pneumatic mechanism controlled by the bow to actuate said levers.

4. A piano violin comprising an endless said rollers, a lever bearing on each end of I said shaft, said levers connected to opposite sides of said frame, a feeler at each side of the normal path of the bow, said feelers mounted on said frame and adapted to be actuated by the how when the latter moves out of said path, pneumatic mechanism controlled by said feelers for actuating the levers, and note-sheet controlled mechanism to rock said frame to bodily move the bow into playing position for any one string or a pair of adjacent strings.

(3. A piano violin comprising a frame mounted to rock, a pair of spaced rollers mounted in said frame, one of which rollers has its shaft displaceable in slots in said frame, an endless band bow supported on said rollers, a lever bearing on each end of said shaft, said levers connected to opposite sides of said frame, a feeler at each side of the normal path of the bow, said feelers mounted on said frame and adapted to be actuated by the bow when the. latter moves out of said path, pneumatic mechanism controlled by said feelers for actuating the levers, and note-sheet controlled mechanism to rock said frame to bodily move the bow into playing position for any one string or pair of adjacent strings, and manual means to rock said frame independently of or in addition to said pneumatic mechanism.

7. A piano violin comprising a pair of spaced supporting rollers, an endless band wholly supported by said rollers, mechanism for automatically tilting said bow with respect to the strings, and manually actuated means for independently or additionally titlting said how to vary the expression.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GUSTAV KARL HENNIG. l/Vitnesses:

EMIL GENDTNER, RUDOLPH FRICKE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C." 

